Kate Brown

Early life and career

Brown was born in Torrejón de Ardoz, Madrid, Spain, where her father was serving in the United States Air Force, but was raised in Minnesota. She graduated from Mounds View High School in Arden Hills, Minnesota in 1978. She earned a Bachelor of Arts in Environmental Conservation with a certificate in Women's Studies from the University of Colorado at Boulder in 1981 and a J.D. degree and certificate in Environmental Law from the Northwestern School of Law at Lewis and Clark College in 1985.

Oregon Legislative Assembly (1991–2009)

Brown was appointed to the Oregon House of Representatives in 1991, filling a vacancy left by predecessor Judy Bauman, who took an executive appointment. She was elected to a second term before being elected to the Oregon State Senate in 1996. Two years later, she was elected Senate Democratic Leader; in 2004, senators made her the first woman to serve as Oregon's Senate Majority Leader.

In July 2007, Brown announced that she would give up her seat in the Oregon Senate to be a candidate for Oregon Secretary of State in 2008. On May 20, 2008, Brown won the election for the Democratic nomination for Secretary of State; and, on November 5, she won the general election by a 51–46% margin against Republican candidate Rick Dancer.

Oregon Secretary of State (2009–2015)

Coming into office, one of Brown’s priorities was to perform rigorous performance audits to help balance the budget. In 2008, for every dollar the State spent, performance audits returned $8 in cost savings. In 2010, Brown reported she delivered $64 in cost savings and efficiencies for every dollar invested in the Division.

In 2009, Brown introduced and passed House Bill 2005 to crack down on fraud and abuse in the initiative and referendum system. It gave the Secretary of State more power to prosecute fraud and enforce the constitutional ban on paying per signature on initiatives.

Brown also implemented online voter registration. As of March 2010, a year after its introduction, Oregon Public Broadcasting noted nearly 87,000 Oregonians had already registered online to vote.

In 2009, the Aspen Institute named Brown as one of 24 "Rising Stars" in American politics and awarded her with a Rodel Fellowship. The program is a two-year fellowship designed to break down partisan barriers and explore the responsibilities of public leadership and good governance.

In October 2012, StateTech magazine highlighted Brown's use of iPad and tablet technology to increase accessibility for voters with disabilities. In 2011, Oregon became the first jurisdiction in the country to use this technology to help voters with disabilities mark their ballots.

In January 2015, Brown submitted a letter to the Federal Communications Commission in support of the Comcast-Time Warner Cable merger that had been almost entirely ghostwritten by Comcast, a company that has made a total of over $10,000 in donations to her past election campaigns.

First term, 2015–2017

On February 13, 2015, Governor John Kitzhaber announced his pending resignation, amid a public corruption scandal; Brown succeeded him on February 18, 2015 since the Oregon Constitution identifies the secretary of state as the successor when the governor leaves office prematurely.

Brown named Brian Shipley, a lobbyist for Oregon Health & Science University and former deputy chief of staff to Governor Ted Kulongoski, as her chief of staff. As her secretary of state, she appointed Jeanne Atkins, who took office on March 11, 2015.

On February 20, 2015, Governor Brown revealed that she was planning to extend the moratorium on executions enacted by her predecessor. She also signed a "motor voter" bill she had championed while Secretary of State, to automatically register voters using their drivers license data.

On July 20, 2016 Brown signed HB3402 into law. This law raised the maximum speed limit to 70 MPH on sections of I-84 east and US-95. Previously the maximum allowed speed limit allowed on Oregon highways was 65. This bill also raised speed limits on non interstate highways in eastern Oregon from 55 to 65. The law became effective March 1, 2016.

Brown is the second female Governor of Oregon, after Barbara Roberts. Brown is one of two Democratic female governors as of 2017, the other being Gina Raimondo of Rhode Island.

2016 special election campaign

Brown ran in the 2016 special election for governor. She faced Julian Bell, Chet Chance, Kevin M. Forsythe, Steve Johnson, and Dave Stauffer in the Democratic primary, and won the nomination. By April 2016, she had raised over $800,000 for her campaign in 2016 alone, while her closest Democratic competitor, Julian Bell, had raised $33,000.

Brown won the election against Republican Bud Pierce, Independent Party nominee Cliff Thomason, Libertarian James Foster, and Constitution Party nominee Aaron Donald Auer, receiving 51% of all cast votes in the state.

Second term, 2017–present

On January 9, 2017, Brown was sworn in for her second term, and first elected term, in office.

Criticism

Brown has been criticized for her willingness to undermine her colleagues. She was integral in rounding up votes to pass a bill reforming Oregon's Public Employee Retirement System and then voted against the reform bill in order to preserve her own ties to organized labor. Many of her colleagues would go on to lose their seats due to backlash from labor unions.

As Secretary of State, Brown faced further political backlash when she stated she had made a mistake in the scheduling of the election for Labor Commissioner between Democrat Brad Avakian and Republican Bruce Starr. An early election would have favored Starr, but as the election approached, Brown changed her mind and scheduled the election for November helping Avakian to win the race.

Personal life

Brown lives in Portland, with her husband Dan Little. She has two stepchildren, Dylan and Jessie. She identifies as bisexual and is the country's first openly bisexual statewide officeholder and first openly bisexual governor.

Awards and distinctions